74 EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF 



attributed to one, which is the only palliative for Marmont's 

 subsequent conduct. 



Treating his prisoner, as I have said, with great apparent kind- 

 ness, the French general exacted from him an especial parole, 

 that he would not consent to be released by the Partidas, while 

 on his journey through Spain to France, which secured his cap- 

 tive, although Lord Wellington offered two thousand dollars to 

 any guerilla chief who should rescue him. The exaction of such 

 a parole, however harsh, was in itself a tacit compliment to the 

 man ; but Marmont, also, sent a letter, with the escort, to the 

 governor of Bayonne, in which, still labouring under the error 

 that there was only one Grant, he designated his captive as a dan- 

 gerous spy, who had done infinite mischief to the French army^ 

 and whom he had only not executed on the spot, out of respect 

 to something resembling an uniform which he wore at the time 

 of his capture. He therefore desired that at Bayonne he should 

 be placed in irons and sent up to Paris. 



This proceeding was too little in accord with the honour of 

 the French army to be supported, and before the Spanish frontier 

 was passed, Grant, it matters not how, was made acquainted 

 with the contents of the letter. Now the custom at Bayonne, in 

 ordinary cases, was for the prisoner to wait on the authorities^ 

 and receive a passport to travel to Verdun, and all this was duly 

 accomplished ; meanwhile the delivering of the fatal letter being, 

 by certain means, delayed. Grant, with a wonderful readiness and 

 boldness, resolved not to escape towards the Pyrenees, thinking 

 that he would naturally be pursued in that direction. lie judged 

 that if the governor of Bayonne could not recapture him at once, 

 he would for his own security suppress the letter, in hopes the 

 matter would be no further thought of; judging, I say, in this 

 acute manner, he on the instant inquired at the hotels, if any 

 French officer was going to Paris, and finding that general Souham, 

 then on his return from Spain, was so bent, he boldly introduced 

 himself, and asked permission to join his party. The other rea- 

 dily assented ; and while thus travelling, the general, unacquainted 

 with Marmont's intentions, often rallied his companion about his 

 adventures, little thinking that he was then himself an instrument 

 in forwarding the most dangerous and skilful of them all. 



In passing through Orleans, Grant, by a species of intuition, 

 discovered an English agent, and from him received a recommen- 

 dation to another secret agent in Paris, whose assistance would 

 be necessary to his final escape; for he looked upon Marmont's 



